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Selman's Levels of Perspective Taking

Robert Selman gave children scenarios along with questions that required them to take the perspective of others. Based on their answers, he developed a stage theory to explain the way in which children develop their ability to take different perspectives. He proposed five stages or levels: undifferentiated perspective-taking; social-informational perspective-taking; self-reflective perspective-taking; mutual perspective-taking; and societal perspective-taking.